Bowie 2017

Camilla d'Errico made "Bowie" sometime in the 20th century. In this strange portrait, d'Errico seems to be engaging in a very contemporary exploration of identity. We can tell that this is the famous musician, David Bowie, because one eye is yellow and the other purple – a direct reference to Bowie’s distinctive look. This portrait has the slightly unsettling quality of the uncanny. On the one hand, the artist captures a sense of Bowie’s presence in the animal form. On the other, the clash between the cat’s appearance and the human dress is inherently disturbing. It prompts us to ask: what does it mean to be human and, more specifically, how are we to define individual human identities? To answer these questions fully, the art historian will turn to secondary sources that explore identity and the uncanny in the late 20th century.